All about our life afloat ... currently on a dock in the Canadian Gulf Islands.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

BC DAY LONG WEEKEND

I finally got my 'summer' haircut .... just in time for the biggest weekend of the year here in Victoria, BC!The highlight of this weekend is called 'Symphony Splash' -- literally a full-on outdoor symphony concert, from a barge in the Inner Harbour. Here's some images of what it looks like from land. And this is what it looks like from the water....

We'll be right there, in our 'front row seats' in our inflatable with Joshua and River and Mischa (Gibson's a bit young to sit still in a small boat for 5 hours!) -- and Hailey will be here! The road from Whistler re-opened last night, and she has reservations on the bus!

Symphony Splash is nothing short of amazing ... it's FREE, for starters (well, donations are highly recommended and welcomed, the event IS a fundraiser), and they estimate that about 40,000 folks turn up for it. It's an absolutely magical evening that ends with cannons going off and fireworks, too -- it's the highlight of our summer, I can tell you that!

And knitting takes place there... we have to get there early (by about 5 pm) to jockey for a position in front of the stage, so I always bring knitting because the concert doesn't start until 7:30. Two years ago, my daughter Mischa just rolled her eyes when my needles came out, "Oh, Mom, do you really have to knit EVERYWHERE?" ("Why, yes, and your point is...?")

When the concert started I tucked the knitting away, and then took it out again at intermission. Mischa shook her head, rolled her eyes, and looked away -- and then turned back to me and said, "Oh my God, Mom, look over there!"

And sure enough, three canoes and two kayaks over another woman was knitting! We got each other's attention, and were close enough to exchange greetings ... she was a tourist from New York, in her son's canoe. What a fun way to connect with another knitter!

I have a 'weekend project' on the needles that I hope to have finished by the end of the 'Splash.'

I just remembered that I left you with a little mystery in my last post...

I'm going to try (non-technical person that I am...) to describe the 'background info' you need for this photo...

When you live on a boat, one of the big concerns is 'electrolysis' -- water has lots of electrical activity in it, and that activity can wreak havoc with any metal parts your boat has underwater.... propellers, struts, through-hull fittings, that kind of thing. So boat owners bolt big slabs of zinc to their hulls to 'distract' the electrical activity... and what happens is that those zincs, over time, literally get 'eaten' away and have to be replaced -- but better those cheap zincs than your expensive prop... or your steering struts.

So... if metal parts on a boat can get eaten by electrical activity, so can metal pipelines. And if you have a pipeline underwater, on the ocean floor, actually, that goes out 3 miles or so into the Juan de Fuca Strait (and the whole world knows that's what Victoria's 'sewage treatment' consists of), then electrolysis will be happening to that metal pipe. So you'd need to have some other metal nearby to 'distract' the activity ... so you'd have huge zinc balls hanging off of that metal pipe all along its length. And those would have to be replaced every couple of years (or at least what's left of them...), so you'd need divers who could do that...

And that's exactly what these dudes were doing when I was knitting at Clover Point the other morning!

2 comments:

Have a wonderful time at the SPLASH today/tonight. My cousins from Edmonton arrived Friday night and we are having a good time.Thanks for your invite to go with you to the SPLASH..maybe next year?!Mischa, Mischa, Mischa..OF COURSE we knit everywhere!!!!Great blog this morning, Marilyn..AND your socks are perfect!

I'm a musician, and I love concerts. I love boats, and I love knitting. However, 5 hours in a small boat, surrounded by water everywhere...excuse me, just thinking about it, I need to visit the WC! VBG!

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About Me

My hubby Michael and I have lived afloat for 18 years now, and we'll never go back to land! The last 15 years have been on our 38' 1965 Chris Craft, Wind Walker . Apart from boating, I knit. A lot. You can email me at skipper at mvwindwalker dot com .